Thursday, November 28, 2013

Taking a moment to reflect and say Thanks!

About 16 months ago, I decided to leave Nationwide Insurance - this company had been my home for almost 10 years - and that was one of the toughest decisions I've had to make.

I started there as an intern, during my junior year in college. I met some really wonderful people - people that taught me, welcomed me into their circles, and invested and support my career.

Throughout those 10 years, I worked in many different roles... and was fortunate to meet some really amazing people. It would be impossible to list them all, but today as I reflect over the last year, I realize and am thankful for the key influences that have built me into the professional that I am today.

  • Starting out as a developer I had the opportunity to learn from two of the best out there - Mr. Guy Royse and Mr. Chris Judd - I'm thankful for Guy's judgment free and patient style and for working with me on my first web service (AutoPrefill); and I'm thankful for Chris's candid and objective style, and for taking the time to help me re-engineer my first Shared Component code base (A2A) - back then I knew very little about Java development and they both made a significant impact in my life - teaching me, taking the time to listen to me and my questions and giving me the tools that I needed to find my answers.These were invaluable moments in my career that built an important foundation that supports me till today. And for that I am Thankful!!
  • As an architect in the SOA team, I had the pleasure and opportunity to work closely with some of the best I've met: Tiffany Meyers - a mentor, a friend and a role model for passion, drive and ability to design an elegant and cost effective solution; Hemanth Kolla, an amazing architect and technical leader that taught me the importance of designing solutions that are easily maintainable and reusable; And for that I am Thankful!!
  • And when I was ready to become a manager, Jenn Mayberry took a chance on me - she gave me my first manager job, and taught me that being a manager is a different thing than being a leader - and being a leader is more than just telling people what to do, is being there for them, and wearing whatever hat needed - the confidant hat, the therapist hat, the motivator hat, the protector hat, and many more. Jenn allowed me to learn, and she was there for me (and still is) every step of the way. And for that I am Thankful!!
Many others, over the 10 years at Nationwide, made a significant impact in my life. I was very fortunate to have had several mentors that help me learn about myself and learn techniques to continuously improve. I am very Thankful for the opportunities I had and the friends I met at Nationwide - and I miss them all!!
But today I can see that leaving Nationwide was the right decision for me. I needed to see more - see more of the IT industry, see more of Columbus and see more of the world. And over the past year I have had the chance to explore a lot - and I know this is just the beginning of much more to come.

I had the opportunity to work with some great people at Cardinal Solutions, including my great friend Kelly Fricky - who introduced my team (Concierge) back at Nationwide to Agile in a way I will never forget - her passion open their minds and set the tone for our transformationAnd for that I am Thankful!!

At Cardinal I got to learn what it meant to be a consultant and the challenges and exciting opportunities that come with it.  Met more great people at Huntington Bank, where I had the opportunity to coach Agile and lead a SOA Program - wow... two of my favorite things!!!! And for that I am Thankful!!

During my stay at Huntington, I met my buddy, friend, partner in crime, connector and voice-of-the-wise John Jolley. John has been a great friend, and has helped me see the world with different eyes - he has brought lots of other people into my life, and he continues to be a great supporter and the tough-but-fair adviser I need in my career. And for that I am Thankful!!

And of course, I'm extremely thankful for my current client engagement - I've always said I wanted to find an opportunity where I could bring my experience and skills into a role that serves as a liaison between my current home (USA) and my always-home (Brazil) - and that's exactly what I am getting to do these days!!! And for that I am Thankful!!

All throughout the years... when first starting in college, and barely speaking English... when overwhelmed with Abstract Algebra homework... when driving to downtown Columbus for the first time, on my first day of internship and getting lost .... when having to make a decision to leave a comfortable career to take a risk into the unknown... one person has always been there for me - helping me become the individual I am, teaching me about leadership with few words and lots of action, and believing in me, even when I could not believe in myself.... I'm very much thankful for my husband Travis, for being my best friend, best mentor, an exemplary leader and the funniest supporter I could ever ask for!!

The days, as they go by can seem hard and often times we forget to say thanks... I know I do. So today I went a little overboard... but I needed to, because I know I didn't get here alone. So Thank You all that have helped me, supported me, hated on me (that helps sometimes too - believe it or not) and been there for me... And thank You Lord, for my health, my family, my friends and my puppy Amigo!!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving....




Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Leading a multi-country, international project... Part 1

Earlier this year I was approached about an amazing opportunity to lead a International, Multi-country Project. The project's main task is to implement Oracle ERP for an organization in South America - rolling it our to 5 countries of operations, starting with two main operations in Brazil and Chile.

If you've heard of ERP systems and this type of project, you already know some of the things I am and will continue to face like the challenges involved in clearly defining business requirements, setting realistic implementation expectations and involving employees and key users accordingly throughout the project lifecycle.

If you haven't hear much about ERP systems and this type of project, take a moment to review the following links - they will give you a quick glimpse into this world - there is soooo much more out there, so don't stop here... research on your own as well!

In addition to the typical Project Management and ERP Implementation challenges, my current project also has an extra layer of complexity related to collaboration and communication amongst multiple countries, languages and cultures... and that is what I believe will be the biggest and most exciting challenge to overcome during this assignment.

So I thought I journal some of my encounters and experiences here in this blog.

Part 1 - Effective Communication

I've been working on this project since May, and much like any other project, Effective Communication is one of the key to continued success.

What does effective communication mean? Our beloved Wikipedia defines Effective Communication as follows: Effective communication occurs when a desired effect is the result of intentional or unintentional information sharing, which is interpreted between multiple entities and acted on in a desired way. In lamest terms: the results achieved are as expected and communicated.

It seems easy... but it is not. There are a lot of internal and external factors that could cause a communication breakdown, and prevent effective communication; including but not limited to language barriers, translation gaps, cultural preconceptions, educational background, role context, personal agendas, individual motivations, terminology gaps, nonverbal cues and others.

With all of the potential for miscommunication, being intentional and careful about what and how you communicate is absolutely necessary for managing/leading a project.

Don't get me wrong... I'm not perfect at communication - I have made and I'm sure will make future mistakes... The point however is that you must be aware of the importance of Effective Communication, and prepare yourself with tools, tactics and strategies to ensure you able to effectively communicate with your team and all involved.

The following are some (not all) of the simple tactics I've used in the past and will most likely continue to use during this project:

- Meeting Agendas & Minutes - seems silly, and for the note taker it may seem a pain in the you know where. However meeting agendas and minutes are easy communication mechanisms that will greatly help you in setting expectations upfront and alignment commitment and accountability afterwards.

The agenda needs to be simple and to the point - it should include:
  • a Purpose statement (The Why - the reason for having such meeting). This will help invitees understand why the meeting is taking place, and also begin to understand why they have been invited.
  • the Topics list - a list with all the topics that are to be discussed. I strongly recommend you describe the action expected for each topic - for example, you may have a topic that is informational (simply an update, or data sharing), you may also have a topic that is a Open Decision, not only will you discuss the topic but a decision has to be made at the end. For open decisions topics I recommend you list the question that needs answered - for example: Define frequency of Steering Committee meetings - Options: 1) Weekly, 2) Biweekly or 3) Monthly.
  • the Expected Outcome - I personally like to explicitly call out the expected outcome of the meeting as a separate item in the agenda, in addition to the purpose statement. The purpose statement defines why the meeting is happening, and the expected outcome identifies an action that must occur as a result of the meeting. For example: You could have a meeting with the purpose of reviewing and approving a Requirements Document; the expected outcome of that meeting would be a final Approved Requirements Document which would imply all changes identified during the meeting should be made there and then, rather than taking updates offline.
The minutes should be simple as well. I recommend you leverage a consistent template throughout your project so that people get familiarized with the format and are able to easily consume the information. My minutes template include:
  • Meeting organizer's name
  • Meeting Note taker (always assign one at the start of the meeting!!!)
  • Date, Time and Location of the meeting
  • Invitees
  • Attendees (not everybody will attend all of your meetings... that's just reality!)
  • Discussion Points (These should match your Topics List, but could include more or less. If less topics were discussed you should have a action item or note that identifies the plan for covering the remaining topics). I sometimes will include Decisions and Conclusions in this section - I have in the past broken those into its own sections - the point is that you should capture any decision made during the meeting and any conclusion reached.
  • Action Items - don't forget to capture the action items identified throughout the meeting. Make sure to have, as much as possible, one single owner for each action items, and an associated due date. As the meeting facilitator, you must follow up on the action items and hold people accountable for them.
- Verbal Communication Strategies - One of the things that have helped me in the best in ensuring effective communication has been the repeat it as I understand it approach. When in a meeting or conversation, where a point is being made by someone, or a question or answer is being given, where my understanding and agreement is expected, before I agree or consent, I repeat what I heard as I understood it to the person so that he/she has the opportunity to hear how I received the message. This approach helps with sorting through ambiguity and individual linguistic abilities.
  • I recall a recent meeting that I attended in Brazil where we were meeting with a vendor to discuss a partnership and during an entire hour I was listening to this guy talk about their Support Team and how they operated. The meeting was fully in Portuguese (which is my native language) but he often used English terms (techy jargon) to explain certain methods and practices they were utilizing, and throughout that entire hour I was certain that he was stating that they leveraged Agile... turned out that what he was saying was ITIL. Since he is Brazilian and was speaking Portuguese, when he said ITIL I heard Agile - this miscommunication came about as a result of a mix of what my brain and ears are trained to hear, my background and his accent. We sorted it out and his presentation made a lot more sense after that... But this is a common situation where repeat it as I understand it can help.
- Written Communication Strategies - If you've worked with me, you know how much I hate emails... My beloved Concierge team will vouch for that... But that is, unfortunately a necessary evil. The key is knowing how to use it. In my current project, I will need to leverage email frequently since I will need to maintain constant communication with multiple locations, in different languages and timezones. So, for all my emails, I adhere to the following guiding principles:

  • Always design your message!!!
  • Select the correct audience and don't copy everyone and their cousins on every email... Escalation should be treated with respect - if you copy too many people, or send an email to too many recipients, you may not ever get a response, as it may be unclear who the email was intended to.
  • Don't write a "quick" email that needs to be well-thought out.
  • Ask yourself, is email the best mechanism for this topic. There are certain topics that should not be discussed via email. I used to get really mad at my team when I saw 10-20-50 emails back and forth, where people were trying to troubleshoot a system problems. This type of collaboration is better accomplished via a chat-interface like sametime, google-hangouts, lync, etc.
  • If your topic is time-sensitive, email is probably not the best mechanism. For time-sensitive topics, I always side with a phone call. I may send an email with details, or background on the topic for future review and to leverage during the phone conversation, but never an email alone.
  • Structure your email effectively - people receive hundreds of email a day, so your email will be another one in the list. According to a recent survey by Harris Interactive, majority of people can only digest about 50 emails a day. As the numbers go above this threshold their attention spam and responsiveness declines. So, your email may only get about half of the attention, so your intuit, your message's goal should be the first thing people read. State it clearly and upfront so that the reader knows what is expected of them as soon as they glance at it. If you need help, state it; if you need a decision to be made, state it. The background information can come below it, as it is supporting info but not the ultimate goal.
  • Oh, and don't forget to get up and walk over to someone's desk when possible... sometimes that is the best communication strategy for certain topics. Of course always being respectful of their time.
As I continue on this journey, I will continue to share with you some of my experiences and lessons learned. I'd love to hear your comments, and learn from you as well... so feel free to leave me a note....

Till next time...

Friday, October 25, 2013

What makes them tick!?

I spent this entire week in Santiago de Chile, working with some really great people. While the main objective of the trip was to communicate about the project with users and learn about their current state processes, I ended up getting a lot more than what I was expecting.

I learned a ton about the company, and their processes, but more importantly, I learned about the dynamics of the group: I had the rare opportunity to observe as they interacted in scheduled group sessions as well as how they interacted in their normal day to day activities.

As the manager for this project, this insight is invaluable!

Understanding the people is an understated but extremely important factor in leading successful projects and teams.

This is not a new lesson for me, but this trip reiterated and expanded on what I already knew: people have their individual needs, fears, goals, perceptions, preconceptions and approach; and understanding what they are and how they complement or conflict with each other is essential to leading a successful team.

When I got my first management job, I sought out my mentors for advice on how to prepare, and approach the new challenge and they gave me tons of things to think about, books to read (e.g.: The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins was one of the best!) and on common advice I received from all of them was regarding the importance of taking time to understand the people, the team.

We are all individuals, and when we come together in organizations and teams, our individual needs can and often will clash. Maybe my style comes from my culture and upbringing, and working with someone from another culture and background may not be easy at first, but diversity is amazing and drives innovation, so finding a way to mesh the two can and would definitely be an advantage.

As a leader it is your job to get to know your people. When I say "get to know" I'm not talking about knowing their names and where they sit; I'm also not talking about meeting their family on Sunday for lunch; I'm talking about a place in the middle of that spectrum, where you genuinely get to know the person's values, motivations, and expectations without overstepping the boundaries of a professional relationship, but also breaking the barrier of a superficial relationship.

Be aware! I'm not talking about being fake and pretending to get to know people to just obtain information and manipulate it to support your own agenda. THAT'S NOT IT!!

I'm talking about building relationships, establishing two-way trust and leveraging the knowledge and respect to position the person in the most ideal role that will benefit the team, the bottom line, and most importantly the individual.

The way I tend to approach this whole idea is two-fold:
1) AWARENESS - by simply being aware of the important of understanding people and making an effort to try to see the world through their eyes.
2) INTENTIONAL and SITUATIONAL Leadership - when I get to learn more about people, and start to build relationships and trust, it is my responsibility as a leader to be intentional about my actions and build a team that respects people's needs and takes advantage of individuals' strengths. It is also my responsibility to know that each person is different and every situational deserves a targeted leadership style.

If I understand what makes them tick, then I will be better able to predict how they may react to certain circumstances, tasks and other people, and as a leader I will be better prepared to assist in mitigating the impact, coaching the person through situations, managing my reaction and planning accordingly.

Oh, and this is what they referred to as a "Win-Win-Win" situation: people are more engaged when their needs are met, higher engagement leads to higher levels of productivity, performance and innovation, which in turn leads to a positive impact to company results, and all of that equates to the best results a leader could deliver!!

Studies have time and again shown the correlation between employee engagement and companies performance. A Gallup study shows that engaged companies outperform their competition: http://businessjournal.gallup.com/content/163130/employee-engagement-drives-growth.aspx

I will echo my mentor's advice, and close this post by saying that while it may be uncomfortable, difficult and you may say you don't have time for it... You must make time to get to know your people and take your responsibility as a leader serious to transform a group of people, into a high performing, highly engaged team! Build relationships based on trust, and foster people's strength to deliver successful results!!

Till next time ...







Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Have you let your mind wonder today?

My whole life I have always had a very active imagination, and over the years I have consciously exercised it as a means to building confidence and strengthening my ability to overcome challenges and visualize and achieve my goals.

When I was a little girl, I used to imagine how my future would be, and I would daydream of a day when I would have my own car. Of course that was always a flying car that I parked on the roof of my parents house. Parking it on the roof made for easy access, and also kept it from being stolen. The car would have a call mechanism, that would fly it down from the roof on my command.

I was also, in my own mind, a synchronized swimming champion during the summers. My parents would take us to the pool club on the weekends and I would spend the entire day swimming around mostly on my own living through the exciting experience of a tournament, and the difficult moves I had to make to win the competition. The hardest moves were the ones that required me to stay under water for long periods of time - but with practice I got better and better, and eventually won first place. All of that was, of course, in my own imagination, and I can only picture how silly I looked for the people around me that happened to pay attention to what I was doing.

I would also spend hours on my own, talking gibberish, pretending to be speaking English. I imagined what it would be like to carry on a conversation in a foreign language, fluently, and what it would be like to live abroad. Little did I know... but it didn't stop me, and it made me feel happy, and wonder...

While I still don't have a flying car, nor have I ever performed any synchronized swimming, the practice of allowing my imagination to wonder has been crucial to my personal development, growth and success.

Now you're probably thinking, how the heck can one's imagination help you succeed? Am I saying that if you think it, it will happen? No, I'm always an advocate for putting in the work, learning from your experiences. However your imagination is a powerful tool for helping you go beyond your experiences and open up your mind to a world that may not currently be your reality.

More often than not, our experiences, can be limiting, and can hold us back from taking a chance, taking a risk, or trying something new. Using our imagination to visualize situations that are unknown and experience the situation through the process of inventing partial or complete personal realms is an invaluable tool that will build your confidence to explore beyond your current known world.

Albert Einstein once said ... “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

My favorite personal story that illustrates this concept is from when I was 18 years old. I had just returned to Brazil from a 6 month exchange student program in the United States, where I finally learned to speak real English (or at least better than the gibberish I was used to). I knew I had loved my experience in the US, and I knew I wanted to go back for more. I just didn't have any personal experience on how that could be done. So I started to imagine myself living in the US, going to college there, going to the mall, and meeting new friends. I would picture what classes I would take, and how I would approach my class mates about joining them in group assignments. I would picture Friday nights, and what they would be like. It is very tempting and natural to build negative imagery specially in unknown situations like these. But I was very careful about where I let my mind wonder, because I knew that I wanted to go back, and those negative images pushed me further away from my goal.
So was I delusional and creating false hopes? No, I was focusing my imagination on what could be and through that process, started to identify questions that I didn't have the answers to. It was almost like a safe dry-run of what my future could be.

As I would picture me going to college in the US, one of the first things that came to mind was the questions about how I would get to school. I didn't have a car in Brazil, much less in the US. The key then was to never allowed these challenges to block my imagination from going forward. I would then picture me with a car. I would not worry about how I would get the car, and where I would get the money for it - because those are actions that I would figure out later, and during the time where my imagination was active, didn't matter how it would happen, it just needed to happen so I could continue to visualize how the rest would be.

Sounds simple, but it takes practice. I can't sit here and tell you that my mind has never wondered into a negative place. That would be a lie. But I'm very careful about how I talk to myself during the moments when my imagination is active. I talk with care, and acknowledge the challenges and carefully place them out of the way, reminding myself that "the how" isn't important at this time, and I will figure it out later.

I encourage you to let your mind wonder too.... It may take you places you haven't consider yet and may open your mind to a new future of opportunities. If you imagine yourself as a business owner, or a manager, or mother, or whatever.... exercising your imagination to build the positive realm will help you build the confidence you may be lacking to pursue it further.

Give it a shot!